Natasha Khan is never one to do things conventionally, so it makes sense she chose a kitsch little British cafe in Greenwich Village to talk about her new album, The Haunted Man, in an interview with Pitchfork‘s ’Weekly’ series earlier this week.

Khan speaks candidly about the experience of recording her new album with Beck, TV On The Radio‘s Dave Sitek and legendary producer Rob Ellis, admitting the album is a coming of age for her “growing in confidence” since her last release Two Suns. Discussing the single “Laura“, Khan is proud of the dizzying, dreamy video clip and the “raw, archetypal” feeling of the song. Stripping back the layers of music and production characteristic of her earlier work, she instead concentrated on three main components for her new release; “vocals, basslines and beats”.

She also discusses the other stripping back, her nude cover of the album as photographed by Ryan McGinley, in a pointed comment about the nature of NSFW content these days; “It’s safer for women’s bodies to be shaved off, everyone’s photoshopped and lip-glossed and sexualized… particularly women are presented as this unattainable ideal of what it is to be a woman when you’re naked,” she reflects sadly, reminding us again why she’s not just a unique musician but also more intelligent than your average pop music personality.

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